Future's End
by JME2
Summary: Luke is suddenly thrown from his duel with Darth Vader on board the second Death Star twenty-four years into the past to the Battle of Genosis....and the duel with Count Dooku...Chapter III is up/ please r/r
1. Chapter I

Disclaimer: Star Wars and its characters are owned by Lucasfilm and Twentieth Century   
Fox. I own the story and any original characters/species. No copyright infringement is intended.  
  
Future's End: Part I  
  
"Use your aggressive feelings boy! Let the hate flow through you."  
  
Luke Skywalker, the last of the Jedi Knights, ignored the taunting of the Emperor, the man who had, a generation before, been a quiet, unassuming senator from Naboo in the Galactic Republic. Even without the Force, Luke, had he turned around, could have seen the glee on Palpatine's face as Luke and Vader dueled…  
  
Ah, here we go. Vader was finally back on his feet, his breathing noticeably heavier. The Dark Lord of the Sith slowly approached the bottom of the stairs, his lightsaber in hand. With a few quick strokes, Luke could…  
  
No.  
  
No, his goal was to not kill Vader. It was to save the man that had once been Anakin Skywalker, his father. Luke released his thumb from the power activation switch on the lightsaber he had built on Tatooine. The glowing green blade retreated back into its socket.  
  
"Obi-Wan has taught you well."  
  
Luke shook his head in distress, hoping that his words would get through to the part of Anakin Skywalker that neither Vader nor the Emperor himself had completely vanquished.  
  
"I will not fight you, Father."  
  
His words fell on deaf ears. Without even faltering, Vader was nearly at the top of the stairs. Luke began retreating back towards one of the throne room's consoles.  
  
"You are unwise to lower your defenses!"  
  
With a slash, Vader' lightsaber came toward Luke's head. Any ordinary man would have instantly been skewered and impaled. But with his Jedi reflexes, Luke ignited his lightsaber, the green blade appearing with a snap-hiss just in time to deflect the pale, red blade of Vader's lightsaber.  
  
***  
  
"You're going to pay for all the Jedi you've killed today, Dooku."  
  
Jedi Knights Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi slowly and warily circled the leader of the Separatist movement, Count Dooku. Dooku simply smiled, his hands resting on the hilt of his curved lightsaber. Obi-Wan glanced over at his Padawan.  
  
"We'll take him together-you go in slowly on the-"  
  
"No, I'm taking him now!"  
  
Anakin charged right at Dooku, his lightsaber's blade pointed right at Dooku's head.  
  
"Anakin, no!"  
  
Dooku stood still, waiting until the last moment before making his move. With blinding speed, he thrust out his hand. From the tips of his fingers came the electric blue blast of Force Lightning. Anakin was struck at point blank range, instantly throwing the Chosen One across the hanger and into the opposite wall. Dooku's gaze shifted towards Obi-Wan.  
  
"As you can see, my Jedi powers are far beyond yours."  
  
Obi-Wan shook his head, a new determination coming about him.  
  
"I don't think so."  
  
Master Kenobi raised his lightsaber in dueling position. Dooku smiled again and raised his, the red blade erupting with a powerful snap-hiss. Obi-Wan swung first, narrowly missing the count's head. Dooku parried his blow with great ease and Kenobi was forced into a retreat, barely able to block Dooku's savage blows.  
  
"Master Kenobi, you disappoint me. Yoda holds you in such high esteem."  
  
Obi-Wan stood his ground, panting and gazing warily at the man who had trained Qui-Gon Jinn. The stories he had heard from Masters Windu and Yoda were indeed true; Dooku was truly a complete swordsman-elegant, graceful and classical-in short, a master of the old style. It was a pity that Dooku had placed his talents against the Jedi and the rest of the Republic.  
  
"Come, come, Master Kenobi. Put me out of my misery."  
  
Obi-Wan took a deep breath, gripped the hilt of his lightsaber tighter than before, and charged at Dooku.  
  
***  
  
Luke parried Vader's blow with one of his own and forced the Dark Lord backwards. But Vader quickly recovered and began lunging at Skywalker again. Their lightsaber blades touched each other as both of the combatants looked into the other's eyes, looking for some weakness in the other. Vader's blade rose again, but Luke dodged it, leaping back with the speed and elegance than only a Jedi could demonstrate. He came to rest on one of the upper consoles and then disengaged his lightsaber.  
  
Vader stood watching his son for a moment, his breathing again noticeably heavier. Luke reached out with the Force and felt the darkness that ate at his father.  
  
But beneath it…  
  
"Your thoughts betray you, Father. I feel the good in you, the conflict."  
  
Vader shook his head and circled the bottom of the platform.  
  
"There is no conflict."  
  
Luke faintly smiled and slowly stepped off to the side of the platform onto a nearby catwalk.  
  
"You couldn't bring yourself to kill me before and I don't believe you will destroy me now."  
  
That much was true. On two occasions, Vader had had Luke right where he wanted him. Aboard his TIE-Advanced x1 fighter, the Dark Lord could have easily shot down Luke's X-Wing as Luke made the trench run on the Death Star during the Battle of Yavin four years earlier. A year before, Vader could have impaled him with his blade in the control center on Bespin's Cloud City.   
  
Bur he hadn't…  
  
Luke heard a grunt of anger murmured from beneath Vader's mask as Luke's statement hit a chord. Luke spared a moment to take his eyes off Vader and gaze at the Emperor, sitting comfortably in his throne. But beneath that black hood, Palpatine's expression was unreadable, though Luke suspected that the evil despot was secretly enjoying Luke's psychological attack on his father. The young Jedi looked back at his father.  
  
"You underestimate the power of the Dark Side. If you will not fight, then you will meet your destiny!"  
  
With blinding speed, Vader threw his lightsaber at the catwalk. The red blade slashed through the metal support girders, causing it to instantly collapse. Luke was thrown forward off the catwalk, his lightsaber in hand-  
  
-and in a brilliant flash of white light, the young Jedi vanished into thin air. Vader instantly stopped, his lightsaber coming back into his gloved hands being the only distraction. The Emperor instantly rose from his throne in amazement, the battle above and on Endor completely forgotten.  
  
"Where did he go?!"  
  
For once in his servitude to the Emperor, Darth Vader, Dark Lord of the Sith, had no answer to give.  
  
***  
  
For a moment, it appeared that Obi-Wan had gained the upper hand in his duel with Count Dooku. But it was only a short victory. Within moments, Dooku's superior dueling skills began to show again and as before, Master Kenobi was forced back into a retreat.  
  
In a few seconds, Obi-Wan would be unable to defend himself any longer; Dooku's ferocious and superior attacks were just too much for him. But the Jedi Master did not give up, pushing for one last attack on the Count.  
  
But it was a futile effort. Dooku slashed with his blade and Obi-Wan fell to the ground. Quick strokes had been made in his shoulder and his thigh, effectively incapacitating him.  
The lightsaber went skittering across the floor towards Anakin's crumpled form, its blue blade disengaged.  
  
Dooku slowly circled the fallen, helpless Obi-Wan. With a grim smile, Dooku raised his own lightsaber-  
  
-and was suddenly distracted by a sudden burst of brilliant, white light. Dooku, Obi-Wan, and even a semi-conscious Anakin gazed over at the portal of light that had appeared.  
  
Or rather, at the figure that came tumbling out.  
  
Dooku quickly summed up the man who slowly got to his feet. He was clothed in an all-black tunic and was in his early twenties by Dooku's estimation. In his gloved right hand there was a lightsaber, a most majestic and artistic one in the Count's expert eye. There was also a look of confusion on his face, almost as is he shouldn't have been there…  
  
***  
  
Luke gazed up at his surroundings. He was no longer fighting Darth Vader in the Emperor's throne room aboard the second Death Star. He was now in a hanger of some sort, the walls set with rock. To his side there lay a strange craft that Luke instantly recognized from the Rebel Alliance's ship archives as a Solar Sailer.  
  
"Who are you?"  
  
Luke's attention gazed to the figure standing in front of him. The man was clothed in a black tunic similar to his, with a gray cape hanging from his shoulders. He was in his early seventies by Luke's estimate and in his hands there was a curved lightsaber, its red blade menacingly pointed at Luke.  
  
He was a Jedi.   
  
But no ordinary Jedi. Luke didn't need the Force to sense the Dark Side energy coming from this man. He knew who it was.  
  
"Count Dooku."  
  
As a child growing up on Tatooine, Luke had had limited access to historical records. At the time he really hadn't cared. After the Battle of Yavin, however, he had tried to find out more about the Clone Wars and about his father's role in it. The Emperor, however, had completely alerted and erased most of the records on that particular conflict.  
  
Luckily, the Rebel Alliance had the majority of the original files of the Clone Wars material, material that Palpatine probably didn't even know about. Through it, he had learned of the struggles of the Clonetroopers and the Jedi against the Separatists and the Sith. Or, more specifically, he had read of the first of the long battles, a duel on the rock world of Genosis between his father, Obi-Wan, and the fallen Jedi Dooku.  
  
The Jedi that Luke now faced.  
  
And Luke suddenly realized that he was no longer just on the Death Star. He was on the planet of Genosis.  
  
Twenty-four years into the past.  
  
To be continued… 


	2. Chapter II

Disclaimer: Star Wars and its characters are owned by Lucasfilm and Twentieth Century   
Fox.. I own the story and any original characters/species. No copyright infringement is intended.  
  
Future's End: Part II  
  
"Han, look out!"  
  
"I see him!"  
  
Han growled an old Corellian curse as he aimed his sleek, heavily modified BlasTech blaster and shot at an Imperial Stormtrooper that was making his way toward the shield generator bunker.  
  
"That'll teach him!"  
  
Now, that was one down and unfortunately, several hundred more to go. And that was just counting the Imperial Forces here on Endor. Like Leia, he had been worried the previous day about the unusual amount of Imperial warships guarding the construction site of the second Death Star. Of course, with the ambush here it was obvious that this had all been a trap, a brilliant one by Han's standards. Of course, given the number of times he and Chewie had-  
  
"Luke!"  
  
Han wheeled around at Leia Organa, a look of shock and horror on her beautiful face. The last time Han had seen it on her face had been after the destruction of her homeworld Aldderan. The Corellian smuggler instantly rushed to her side, all thoughts of the battle forgotten. But he couldn't make out any blaster wound, so…  
  
"What is it?"  
  
"Luke is…I can't…Luke is gone…"  
  
Han drew in a raspy intake of breath  
  
"Gone as in dead or just -wait, how do you know that?"  
  
It took all of Leia's effort to pronounce her response as clearly as it was possible.   
  
"Because we share a special bond. Because he's my brother, Han."  
  
***  
  
"Concentrate all combined fire on the Federation ships."  
  
"Yes sir."  
  
Yoda stood in the Clonetrooper Command Center, observing the Republic Forces clash against the droid armies of the Separatists. The Jedi master watched with grim satisfaction as one of the Trade Federation's ship plummeted back onto the battlefield, crushing and injuring hundreds. Hopefully, the battle would soon be over, but the clean-up would take time to-  
  
Yoda suddenly felt something out of place with the Force. He did not observe one of the Clonetroopers approach the legendary two-foot tall Jedi Master.  
  
"The droid army is in full re-"  
  
Yoda made a silencing move with his wrist.  
  
"I'm sorry sir."  
  
The Clonetrooper patiently waited across the deck. Yoda reached out with the Force and suddenly, he felt the presence of Dooku, Kenobi, Skywalker, and…  
  
Yoda frowned. The fourth presence he felt was one he had never felt before. But it still felt similar to Anakin's Force signature. Too similar…Yoda turned toward the Clonetrooper.  
  
"Yes, commander?"  
  
The Clonetrooper straightened himself.  
  
"The droid army is in full retreat, sir."  
  
"Well done, Commander. Bring me my ship."  
  
"Yes sir!"  
  
The Clonetrooper immediately issued orders to the Republic Gunship that Yoda had designated as his transport. He had to see what it was that he had felt. And he knwed he would find it at Dooku's private hanger.  
  
***  
  
There was silence in the hanger for a few moments before a bemused expression spread across Count Dooku's face.  
  
"My, my, my reputation proceeds me. I must say, you're unlike any Jedi I've ever seen before."  
  
Count Dooku slowly circled Luke, eyeing the semi-conscious forms of Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker on the floor. Luke turned his head for a brief moment towards them-  
  
-and Dooku launched himself towards Luke at such an incredible speed that Skywalker barely had time to raise his lightsaber before the Dark Jedi was upon him. Luke ducked to the side and brought his lightsaber towards Dooku's face.  
  
But the Count was unrelenting and not only parried this move, but began driving the heir to the Skywalker legacy back with great ferocity. Suddenly, Luke went into a dive and as he rolled across the hanger, he brought his right leg up. His aim was true as his foot made contact with the Dark Jedi's back, sending Dooku flying face first into into the stone wall. Luke let a small grin spread across his face.  
  
"Score one for the Skywalker."  
  
Obi-Wan's eyes widened as he nudged at Anakin.  
  
"What did he just say?!"  
  
***  
  
Senator Padme Amidala, Galactic Representative of the Sovereign State of Naboo, lay dazed in the sand of the Genosis desert. She tried to move but was instantly pulled down. It almost felt like she had broken a few ribs. The last thing she remembered was the Republic gunship pursuing Count Dooku's speeder bike and then…  
  
"Are you all right?"  
  
Padme opened her eyes to reveal a Clonetrooper standing above her.  
  
"Yes, I'm fine. But we need to get to the hanger!"  
  
"Understood."  
  
Padme raised herself to her feet as she and the Clonetrooper ran towards the Republic Gunship hovering on a nearby sand dune.  
  
***  
  
"Where is he?!"  
  
Emperor Palpatine shrieked into the Death Star's throne room for the hundredth time. And as before, Darth Vader, Dark Lord of the Sith, had no answer to give to his master.  
  
Yet once again, Vader reached out with the Force and found no trace of his son…  
  
…but…  
  
Vader frowned as he approached the portion of the catwalk. There was something about how it stood out in the Force and-  
  
"Find him!"  
  
All thoughts and all words for the Emperor were lost as the man who had once been Anakin Skywalker was pelted with a Force vision. It was technically nothing new to him; he had received these visions numerous times for the past forty years, starting with his mother's…death.  
  
Death…  
  
Vader's eyes widened as he suddenly saw his son somewhere else, fighting in what appeared to be a hanger, yet it looked familiar somehow, as did the figure that…  
  
…That thrust his red bladed lightsaber through his son's chest. Vader screamed in pain and anger at his son's death-  
  
-and the Force vision melted away to reveal the second Death Star's throne room. Or more precisely, his lord and master Emperor Palpatine standing above him.  
  
"What are you doing?! I told you get off your feet and find young Skywalker!"  
  
For once in his twenty two years of servitude to the Emperor, Vader didn't care about what his dark master wanted. And his response clearly showed it.  
  
"Shut up."  
  
Palpatine's eyes widened at this remark. Anger spread across the Emperor's face, but quickly turned into a sad smile as the Emperor began to shake his head.  
  
"Very unwise of you, Lord Vader. Very foolish. You are truly the father of Skywal-"  
  
The Emperor never got to finish his statement as Vader flung himself at his dark master's throat. But before his gloved hands could wrap themselves around Palpatine's windpipe, the Emperor raised his fingers and unleashed a furious Force lightning. Vader was thrown back towards the fallen catwalk-  
  
-and in a brilliant flash of white light, the Dark Jedi vanished into thin air. Palpatine's eyes widened for a second, all thoughts of the battle above and on Endor completely forgotten yet again. What was going on here?!  
  
***  
  
Obi-Wan Kenobi reached out with the Force towards the young man that had driven Count Dooku into the hanger's wall…  
  
…And found what he was looking for.  
  
"What is it master?"  
  
Obi-Wan gazed to his side at Anakin's crumpled form.  
  
"Anakin, that man's Force presence. It's remarkably similar to yours. I-Anakin, I think he may be your descendent!"  
  
***  
  
Luke raised himself and drew his breath in slowly. While on Dagobah, Yoda had spoken about the art of lightsaber dueling and had made references to various Jedi Knights who had become unparallel masters of the duel. And Count Dooku was most certainly a master of the old style. In many ways, this guy was even more ferocious and skilled than Vader…  
  
"I must say, I've rarely never met a Jedi Knight that fights dirty; I like that."  
  
Dooku had finally risen. And despite the obvious bruises and pain Luke's kick had obviously caused, he meant to finish this business. Both the Count and Luke raised their lightsabers back into a dueling position-  
  
-and suddenly both combatants were distracted by a sudden burst of brilliant, white light. Luke swore under his breath using one of the Corellian curses he had picked up over the last four years from Han and Chewie.  
  
"Not again-"  
  
Luke's words froze in his mouth as he, Dooku, Obi-Wan, and Anakin gazed over at the portal of light. Or rather at the figure that had appeared. The man was clothed all in black armor, with a cape flowing out from behind his shoulders. A black, unemotional mask adorned his face, with an all too familiar breathing…  
  
Panic spread across Luke's face. No, it couldn't be, it just couldn't.  
  
But it was. It was Darth Vader.  
  
To be continued… 


	3. Cahpter III

Disclaimer: Star Wars and its characters are owned by Lucasfilm and Twentieth Century   
Fox. I own the story and any original characters/species. No copyright infringement is intended.  
  
Future's End: Part III  
  
"This is not looking good, sir."  
  
"Admiral, we have incoming fighters from vector 3-7"  
  
"Yes, I see it. Tell Green Group to concentrate their fire on the right flank; the Imperial ships are spread pretty thin there!"   
  
"Aye sir!"  
  
Admiral Ackbar murmured in his native Mon Calamari tongue as he watched the Battle of Endor unfolding outside of the viewport of the Rebel flagship Home One. And it was not going well at all. The Alliance was losing fighters as quickly as the Imperial Fleet was launching its own TIES at the impressive ragtag fleet. And the Alliance ships that weren't already damaged or firing at the Star Destroyer blockade were taking shots from the second Death Star.  
  
A Death Star that by all accounts shouldn't even be operational…  
  
Ackbar was tempted to curse at the overconfidence of his rival Borsk Fey'lya and his so-called Bothan spies. But he couldn't; everyone in the Alliance shared equal blame for not seeing this coming. The Mon Calamari Admiral had to admit from a tactical point of view, it had been a brilliant move. It was cunning and diabolical using the Death Star as bait for the Rebels. As he had decades before with the Republic Senate, Palpatine had done it yet again.  
  
And again Ackbar cursed himself for not seeing it when the clues had been right in front of them all along: The 'difficult' capture of the plans, the unexplained absence of Imperial warships from key sectors- it went and on and on, as did the casualties that were mounting on both sides as ships and energy moved through the vacuum of space high above the forsst moon of Endor.  
  
But there was nothing they could do about it except try and survive this. And the only way they even had a chance of winning was striking at the Death Star. But the shield had not fallen and that caused Ackbar to wonder what was taking the team so long. But if the Imperial Fleet had been waiting for them in orbit, then they most assuredly had ground forces down on the Endor moon. Ackbar couldn't help by wonder how Luke, Leia, Solo, and the others were faring or if they were still alive.  
  
"Admiral Ackbar!"  
  
The Mon Calamari turned towards the voice of Home One's communications officer.  
  
"Sir, we just received a message from the frigate Winds of Alderaan. Their sensor array have picked something strange coming from the Death Star's vicinity."  
  
"What is it?"  
  
"It could be just battle damage to their sensors, but they claim that they have detected chronometric particles being emitted from the battle station's northern pole."  
  
Now Ackbar was confused. Chronometric particles were not exactly a common sight, at least not in the Empire or even among the Alliance's scientists. However, the Alliance's historians had after careful digging through snippets of data downloaded from the archives on Coruscant and Obroa-skai had found something very interesting.  
  
They had confirmed that years before, Republic scientists had been working on experiments involving the space-time time continuum or rather, the attempt to harness the properties of time. By all accounts they had failed and that besides the snippets of information that the Rebels (and most likely Imperials also) had found, the experiments were lost to the ages.  
  
So what were chronometric particles doing above Endor?  
  
***  
"Senator Amidala!"  
  
Yoda breathed a sigh of relief as one of the Clonetroopers escorted the former Naboo queen, now Senator into the Republic Bomber.  
  
"Are you injured?" the trooper asked.  
  
"I took a bit of bump on my side, but I'm fine over all."  
  
The clone trooper paused for a moment  
  
Yoda leaned forward on his cane as the Republic Bomber lifted off and swept over the sands of Genosis at a speed that would send many into a flurry of adrenaline. The wizened Jedi master ignored it. Adventure and excitement were two things that a Jedi did not crave.  
  
"Sir, we've located a hanger about ten kilometers west of our current position. We're picking up several life signs also.  
  
"How many?"  
  
"Five. All human."  
  
Yoda was silent. When last he had reached out with the Force, there were only four. Strange. Yet if that earlier energy signature was correct…  
  
"Commander, get us there as quickly as you can."  
  
***  
  
This was not happening though Luke. Dooku AND Vader? The man who like the Emperor, was once known under a different name did not look at Luke. He gazed instead at the man who had been among the greatest traitors of the Jedi Order before Vader had assisted Palpatine in the great Jedi purge.   
  
"It's been a long Dooku."  
  
The Separatist leader's face betrayed no emotion. He was too busy trying to determine who this man was. Obviously, he was a Sith; that much was obvious from the amount of Dark Side energy which the Count could detect. And it was a lot, even more than his or that of Sidious.  
  
Sidious.  
  
He frowned. Could it be? No, it was not possible. Ever since the death of Darth Maul on Naboo ten years earlier, Sidious had been unable to divert significant attention into locating a new apprentice. It wasn't entirely due to his age, or rather his alter ego which Dooku was still amazed that the Jedi Council had not stumbled onto, even ten years after what had transpired at Naboo.  
  
That was why he had approached Dooku, offering him title of a Sith Lord. And so he had accepted then name of Darth Tyrannus, determined to finish   
  
The voice he did not recognize. But there were two Force signature he was giving off, both familiar though the other was more residual. That hatred, that fear. He had felt it before in…  
  
His eyes widened as he sensed a common thread among three of the men in the room.  
  
"By the winds of Alderrann," he muttered. It was impossible, wasn't it. Clearly the dark man before him and the young Jedi Knight who was one arm short were one and the same. Like the mysterious Knight who had appeared minutes before, he appeared to be not of this time.  
  
Which led Dooku to a startling revelation as he realized that the second force signature belong to Palpatine.  
  
If he appears to be from the future, then what has happened to me? If all appeared as it did, then Palpatine had had no more use for him and had instead chosen this Skywalker boy to be his right hand man. I cannot allow that, he thought. I haven't worked this hard and come so far to led some snot nosed punk ruin everything.   
  
And just as Vader had deduced what Dooku had deduced, the aging Count and Sith Lord re-ignited his lightsaber and charged at the man who had been Anakin Skywalker.  
  
To be continued… 


End file.
